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Windows 7: Task Manager - Create Elevated Shortcut

First, a big thank you. This and several other posts of yours have been very helpful as I futz around tweaking this new-to-me second-hand computer running Windows 7. I was using XP far after its expiration date...

Second, long post about several related but different thoughts... read if you're patient!

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I encountered basically the same issue as glnz above. More specifically for me was not that it would run-but-not-in-admin-mode, it was that the shortcut in the startup folder (with 'run as admin' checked) did not seem to do ANYTHING on startup - no UAC prompt, nothing at all, but the shortcut worked fine if I clicked it after startup. Anyway your task scheduler method's tutorial linked in your reply to that helped me as well. Thank you very much.

However, keeping glnz's second post (about not needing the shortcut) in mind, I also wondered how some other shortcut in the same startup folder would make any difference. Pardon me but your wording is basically contradictory. For a thread about creating an elevated shortcut, and as you noted "Windows will not let anything run elevated at startup like that [from the startup folder]." you say the workaround is to create another elevated shortcut and put it in the startup folder. First reaction: WTF? Oh well, I thought, let's see what this other thread is about...

Like I said, I followed the instructions, it worked fine. While following them, and not realizing glnz had mentioned it, I wondered why not set a trigger for startup on the task I just created? Why do all this shortcut stuff? After getting it to work with the regular instructions, I removed the shortcut and went back to set the trigger.

Lo and behold, it did nothing on startup, just like the shortcut method from this thread. Now I'm really curious what is going on. I read through more of the other thread until at some point around November 2010 there someone mentioned something about needing to set a task trigger to 'at log on'. This got me thinking... if the 'on startup' methods don't work, and the cmd.exe method does work but appears to run after startup, and this whole issue is happening because the OS is set to make sure whatever runs has the right privileges, and privileges require some kind of log-in... then the 'at log on' trigger ought to do it. Sure enough, that worked.

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So basically what I'm finding is that the simple shortcut method in this thread does not work for startup (same as glnz found and you noted), but the task scheduler method in the other thread is ONLY needed for startup. The task scheduler thread's shortcut creation is otherwise such overkill that one might as well just use the simpler shortcut method from this thread. Am I missing something?

I would also point out that if I am correct that (for whatever reason I would love to know) when doing it entirely within Task Scheduler the trigger must be set to 'at log on' (not 'at startup'), neither tutorial makes this clear. Again, perhaps I missed something.

One more thought is that I have learned that startup in one part of Windows is not the same as startup in another. Startup in the task scheduler apparently happens well before log-on (too soon for the cmd.exe task to work), and startup from the startup folder apparently happens some time later but still before log-on (at least later enough within startup that cmd.exe ends up running after log-on but still too soon for the simple shortcut in this thread to work). I hope that was understandable. I can only wonder about the intricacies that lead to this.

Thank you again!

P.S. I realize now part of my trouble was that I was researching the 2 issues (starting Task Manager with 'show processes from all users' by default, and starting Task Manager automatically on startup) separately. A google search with both issues at once "windows 7 task manager always show processes from all users on startup" brought me to https://social.technet.microsoft.com...w8itproinstall
where just the third reply (Moderator Nicholas Li) states both components needed - use task scheduler and set it to 'at log on'. Ugh, oh well. Though that post is about Windows 8, I probably would have tried it (and upon further reading it apparently doesn't work in Win8!). Anyway I'm glad I ended up here again, I keep finding more and more useful info.

P.P.S. Sorry if this is 'gravedigging' an old thread, but it seemed more appropriate here than the 50+ page other thread that was also about lots of other programs. If I should move it there, just say the word...

Any idea why the elevated task works through the startup folder as a shortcut, and works within task scheduler when triggered 'at log on', but does not work within task scheduler when triggered 'at startup'? Or to put it another way, what is the difference between the two versions of 'startup'?

Thank you as always. I don't know what drives you, but it is appreciated!

Task Manager - Create Elevated Shortcut

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